Homemade Hot Sauce!

Sunday night we had our first Down South dinner at The Pantry. Boiled peanuts, homemade saltine crackers with pimento cheese and smoked ham, succotash, fried chicken, buttermilk biscuits. I have to admit, it was kind of amazing. Maybe I’m biased to Southern food in general, but there was something beautiful about watching complete strangers sit around the table and get in there with their fingers. The thing that threw it over the edge for me?

Homemade hot sauce.

You know the stuff. It’s pretty. It’s hot. It’s usually that awesome shade of orange that I can never find a paint chip to perfectly match. It makes me drool a little just to think about it. I’ve been buying this one brand, Youk’s, for years. The problem is that they only sell it online or in San Francisco, at this restaurant called Maverick. Needless to say, carting it back to Seattle after every trip got a little tedious. And once you’ve had the good stuff, it’s just hard to go back to Tabasco or Tapatío. If you’re as much a fan of the stuff as I am, then this is a very good day. I made it with my friend Brandon one day, a couple of weeks ago. It was kind of a shot in the dark, involving us poking around on the web for Southern-style recipes, then just winging it. It actually surprised me with how good it is. Who knew I had such little faith in myself? Anyhoo, get yourself to the farmer’s market before the peppers are gone, you’ll thank me.

We started by tossing some fresno chiles in olive oil and then roasting them in the wood-fired oven at Delancey for a bit. After they got nice and browned, we pureed them in a food processor with just enough vinegar to make them move around in there comfortably.

Then we placed the whole blob of pepper paste in a strainer and smashed it through. We took the liquid that came through and adjusted it with more vinegar, some water and lots of salt. And that’s it. So darn simple.

And crazy good. We made about 6 cups of it and have already gone through a quart. In two weeks. There’s been a lot of heartburn at The Pantry this month, but no one’s complaining.

Hot Sauce Recipe:

1 lb Fresno chiles

15 TBSP distilled vinegar

1 TBSP water

1 3/4 tsp kosher salt

– Trim the stems off of the chiles, leaving the base that the stem attaches to. Rumor has it that that part gives great flavor. Who am I to challenge a good culinary rumor?

– Toss the chiles in enough olive oil to coat them. Then roast them in a broiler, or grill them if you can. The goal is to get a nice char on them.

– Puree them in a food processor or blender with enough vinegar to keep them moving.

– Strain them through a fine sieve, smashing the whole time to get as much of the pulp as possible.

– Add the water, salt and the rest of the vinegar and pop in the fridge to chill for a few days. You can certainly eat it immediately, but it only gets better with time.

Oh. I’ve been experimenting with hot sauce too recently! A thicker version though, more like a Spanish “Salsa brava”. Right now I have a pork shoulder slow-cooking in the oven, I might need some of the hot stuff!

Oh. Wow. This couldn’t sound more simple. And more appealing. Any idea how long the hot sauce would last for? Though I live alone, going through a quart in a few weeks doesn’t seem too far fetched either …

I love Youk’s! But even more, that you totally problem-solved. Bummed that I didn’t make it to Seattle, but you saw those mountains that got in the way. 🙂 Someday, for reals, I will be up to visit the Pantry at Delancey. So inspired by what you guys are doing.

Woohoo! I am seriously so excited. My husband is a hot sauce connoisseur-no joke. He loves Tabasco, Frank’s Red Hot, and Tapatio. I had to retrain him to try my food before dousing it! I pulled out a recipe for homemade hot sauce from Saveur about a year ago, but, *sigh* haven’t made it yet. I can’t wait to try this one! Thanks! I love your post.

I´ve been on a big homemade hot sauce kick too– it´s what seems to happen when you live in a country where you can´t find the bottled stuff. Same technique, just with the little tiny hot peppers. Also, I know it´s been awhile since you posted on it, but I´ve been loving your cabbage peanut salad!

Wish I’d been there, but it was sold out. I’m originally from Arkansas,
and came to Seattle via New Orleans.
My Mammaw always served a side of fried okra, no matter what, and in the summer and fall there
a requisite plate of sliced tomatoes and onions to be passed around the table as well.

Just came across this post. Lately, I seem to toss Fresnos into absolutely everything (sweet + fruity + hot = fantastic), and to top it off, I’m currently editing a cookbook all about hot sauces for Storey Publishing. Serendipity, for sure. I’ll be making this as soon as I can lay my hand on enough Fresnos (they’re considered exotic here in central Wisc.)

I happened on this site just in time. I was just given a quart size bag of tiny red chili peppers. I’m not sure of the variety but they are seriously hot (they range from about 2 inches to about 4 inches in length and are quite slim). I’m wondering if the same technique would work with these hot little gems? I think I’ll give it a try – what the heck!

Sounds kinda like the true southern recipe my great grandfather taught me when I was a kid. He would hickory smoke his peppers in the smoke house with the hogs. His had tomatoes added. We also let the stuff age for at least a year. He been gone since 85 and I still have some bottles of his that makes this new stuff with ghost peppers look like water. Our peppers are a custom family hybrid tho.